Friday was a balmy and all Autumn day in Melbourne so we made an instant decision to drive to the RACV Club in the Yarra Valley for lunch. I made a mistake in not taking my camera as it was peak colour in the vineyards and very spectacular.

When we were first married, I remember going to one of the closer wineries, buying a bottle of wine and then heading down to a picnic area by the Yarra River for a BBQ. Then, in the afternoon, we wolud visit the other three wineries in the area. Now, there are over eighty wineries and this area on our back doorstep. It has become one of the great wine producing areas of Australia.

Saturday was forecast for heavy rain to develop, so we set off early in the morning to retrace our route and take some photos. Far from tasting any wine, we did an unusual thing if just driving into various winery car parks, took some photos and then headed off to the next one. We wanted to take as many photos as we could before the rain arrived in the early afternoon. 

We took some back roads that we don’t normally use and we were quite surprised to find some very charming scenes, grand houses and broad landscape vistas across the valley. It was a fun day spotting different photographic opportunities and we were happy with the things we found.

Vineyard near Kangaroo Ground

Geese in the vineyard at Yarrawood Winery

A grand design of house on a hill near Yarra Glen

A view across the Yarra Valley

Gateway to a private property

Netted vines to protect the ripe fruit from marauding parrots

Picnic area at Boat O’Craigo Winery, Healesville

\

A planting of young vines

Helicopter at the very grand Levatine Hill Winery

Vineyard at Domain Chandon Winery